Malcolm Rivers grew up, by design, in a gang ridden section of Boston, MA at the apex of the crack era. Malcolm’s father, a former gang member himself, had moved the family to the neighborhood to serve the community and young Malcolm learned, through his experiences and others’, the landscape of violent crime. He was first shot at at age 4, first sucker punched at 9, first witnessed a shooting at 10, first set up for ambush at 12, first had a knife pulled on him at 13, and first had a gun pulled on him at 16. The hard lessons were routine as he lost friends, and illusions, to careers as violent criminals, early deaths, and stints of incarceration. The family’s gang outreach efforts and ex-offender programs introduced Malcolm to a steady stream of influences and mentors who; through their actions, words, and life outcomes; continued to solidify his picture of the street. Convicted murderers and prison gang leaders were surprisingly informative. In college, three friends were shot to death in the basement of his next-door neighbor, fueling his passion to derail the cycles of violence he witnessed. He ultimately wrote his undergraduate thesis on gang violence in his city and moved to Washington, DC to teach kids or something.

Malcolm’s introduction to inner city DC further broadened his understanding of predatory violence. He moved in next door to a drug distribution center (ahem, dope house) and had the distinct pleasure of hiding in a bathtub, the first week in his new apartment as his neighbors had a shootout. The neighborhood was fairly predictable: cops raided; prostitutes prostituted; drugs moved; guns fired. His teaching career also developed Malcolm’s understandings of the interaction between kids in violent neighborhoods and the state. He watched the processes of gang formation and impressionable kids being conditioned toward lives as violent criminals. Teaching students who spent 16 hours a day being conditioned for the street, and only 8 hours a day being conditioned for society was informative, to say the least.

Eventually, Malcolm began bouncing in the Adams Morgan section of DC to supplement his income because who doesn’t being outnumbered 75 to 1 by drunken belligerents on a nightly basis? Bouncing provided a look at violence from the professional side and Malcolm learned some invaluable lessons from his own experience and from the veterans of the doors he worked with. Bouncing also gave rise to an interest in teaching self-defense in an effort to address some of the…confusing ideas put forth by parts of the self-defense community. As a result, Malcolm has taught self-defense to a pretty wide variety of clients independently, with Nova Self Defense, and with District Combatives. At some point the elven queen…er…Dr. Tammy Yard McCracken called on him to participate in a great courses video series on self-defense. Malcolm also became an NRA certified pistol instructor and taught some gun stuff because it’s occasionally useful to be on the other side of the barrel, right?

Oh yeah and at various points Malcolm studied martial arts. He started with Goju Ryu, moved to boxing, wrestled in junior high and high school, did Krav Maga in college and grad school, and learned some Danzan Ryu as an adult. Y’know, in case it’s pertinent.